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Barcelona Rarity: Damrau and Flórez can’t Salvage Linda di Chamounix

Administrator — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:28:30 +0000

Linda di Chamounix is an opera of full-blown maturity Donizetti. When it premiered in Vienna in 1842, Donizetti’s greatest hits were already well established. Only Don Pasquale (1844), among his best known operas, came later. Although Linda di Chamounix was a major success at its premiere and at its revival in Paris (revised and with the addition of its best-known aria), it is now one of the least performed operas by Donizetti. In Spain it was last performed in Bilbao in 1998 with Edita Gruberova in the title role. In major opera houses it was seen last season at London’s Covent Garden, but only in a concert version. Now the Liceu in Barcelona has decided to bring it back on stage, and with an exceptional cast. Is the presence of two exceptional singers like Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flórez enough for Linda di Chamounix to succeed? Alas, no. Linda belongs among the semi-serious melodramas, which might have had its day, but not nowadays. There are exceptional lyrical pages in some Donizetti buffo operas, but no particularly successful lightheartedness in his lyrical or dramatic operas. Especially the quality of the music that Donizetti wrote for the buffo scenes of Marquis Boisfleury is poor. The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is weak enough to stand out even among other Rossini libretti and the music is very uneven, with outstanding moments (among them several of the main duets) right next to , but at times the music that does not go above oompah-pah. At three hours, nearly 3 hours of opera can get rather long.

A Stunning Carmen at Seattle Opera

Administrator — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 18:14:50 +0000

Posted in Articles

From Seen and Heard International By: Bernard Jacobson Bizet, Carmen: Seattle Opera, Soloists, Orchestra, Pier Giorgio Morandi (conductor), McCaw Hall, Seattle, 15/28.10.2011 (BJ) Bernard Uzan, whose new Carmen for Seattle Opera ran through the second half of October, can certainly [...]

At Last, Good Verdi From Parma: Un Ballo in Boston

Administrator — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:17:22 +0000

Posted in Articles

From Seen and Heard International By: José M. Irurzun G. Verdi. Un Ballo in Maschera: Soloists, Orchestra and Chorus Teatro Regio di Parma, Gianluigi Gelmetti (conductor), Teatro Regio di Parma. 9.10.2011 (JMI) Photo courtesy Teatro Regio di Parma, © Roberto [...]

The Requiem at Parma’s Teatro Farnese

Administrator — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:15:23 +0000

Posted in Articles

From Seen and Heard International By: José M. Irurzun G. Verdi, Requiem:: Soloists, Orchestra and Choir Teatro Regio di Parma, Yuri Temirkanov (conductor), Parma’s Teatro Farnese. 08.10.2011 (JMI) Parma’s Verdi Festival is no exception among opera theatres and festivals these [...]